A Vital Factor for Business Success in 2017 Chris Bell –customerexperiences.co.nz

I have yet to come across an organisation that doesn’t talk about their commitment to the customer and the quality of their customer service.
Many organisations proudly show me their recent customer satisfaction survey results.

Yet despite all the surveys, the countless workshops and seminars, the thousands of books and the mountain of research on improving customer service and the quality of the customer experienceWHY are we still not receiving better customer service and having more quality customer experiences?
Many organisations understand that they are not living up to their customer’s expectations. Many more take an inside –out view and think they are performing way better than their customer think they are.

The “Experience Gap Analysis (EGA) study of both employees and customers found that employees consistently overestimated their level of service performance, believing they had delivered greater value than their customers on the receiving end were willing to give them credit for.

This is a clear case of employees applying one set of criteria to judge the quality of their service and customers rating the experience based on entirely different standards.

Also contributing to the gap is an organisations focus. While paying lip service to the importance of the customer, the focus is clearly more on the organisation resulting in a lack of customer focus including support processes and systems geared to the delivery of high quality experiences.

Great customer experiences require an emotionally engaging performance. Processes and systems can’t do that nor can machines, only people can and in an increasingly technology based economy great people contact is becoming a real point of difference.

It’s the choice your people make every day regarding the quality of customer experience they deliver.

Everyday your people make choices that determine the experience your customers have with your organisation.

You can’t make your people smile
You can’t make your people care
You can’t make your people be more helpful
You can’t make your people be more welcoming
You can’t make your people go the extra mile

Only your people can make that choice.
What you can do is provide quality leadership, a people and customer focused culture, and ensure you have the right people onboard……
Then let them deliver the magic!
Chris Bell
Customer Experience Coach

Chris Bell is managing director of Customer Experiences, a company that specialises in helping businesses improve the way in which they interact with customers and clients. – chris@customerexperiences.co.nz; mb 027 2792360 www.customerexperiences.co.nz